Confidential Counselling
Sometimes people need somewhere safe to speak before they know what they want to do.
Nexus works with organisations to establish that confidential route before it is needed, so eligible employees, volunteers or members know how to access it and understand what confidentiality means in practice.
What confidential counselling is
A confidential counsellor is an independent person you can talk to. The role is to listen, help you make sense of what has happened, and set out the options that exist — including the option of doing nothing for now.
You decide what happens next. Conversations with the Confidential Counsellor are treated as confidential. Identifiable information is not shared with management, the board or other parties without the explicit consent of the person seeking support. Confidentiality is not absolute. In an exceptional situation involving a legal obligation or a carefully assessed conflict of duties, disclosure may have to be considered. The nature and limits of confidentiality are explained at the beginning. Where possible, the person concerned is involved and informed before any disclosure, and no more information is shared than is necessary.
Speaking to a confidential counsellor does not start a formal process. It is not an investigation, not a complaints procedure, and not part of HR or management.
Mechanisms collect information. Confidential counselling creates a relationship.
How access works
Access is established through an organisation.
For organisations considering an arrangement
Confidential counselling is established through an agreement with an organisation. A first conversation explores who the service would be for, how people would access it, how independence and confidentiality would work, and what safeguards, boundaries and referral arrangements need to be in place.
If your organisation already works with Nexus
Employees, volunteers or members covered by an existing arrangement receive dedicated information about how to contact Nexus confidentially. Please use the access route provided through that arrangement rather than the general website email address.
In an emergency, or where there is immediate risk of harm, contact local emergency services.
Nexus does not currently offer confidential counselling directly to individuals outside an organisational arrangement.
Two settings
The same principles, two different settings.
Workplace confidential counselling
An external, independent Confidential Counsellor for employees, volunteers, members and others associated with an organisation.
Confidential counselling for programme communities
An emerging approach Nexus is exploring carefully with interested organisations, for people participating in or affected by humanitarian and development programmes. It complements existing safeguarding and accountability mechanisms.
What guides the work
Listening · confidentiality · independence · agency
Independence is not a claim about neutrality; it is a structural fact. Being outside the organisation's hierarchy makes it possible to be genuinely useful to the person in front of you.
An organisation may commission the service. The confidential counsellor is there for the person seeking support.
Registration
Joachim Ramakers is an LVV-registered Confidential Counsellor and holds the Dutch professional designation LVV-registervertrouwenspersoon®. He is registered with Hobéon SKO under certificate number VP-3283. His current certificate is valid through 14 November 2027.
Languages
Confidential conversations can be conducted in Dutch, English, Spanish and German. Joachim also speaks French and Portuguese at an intermediate level; whether either language is suitable for a particular conversation is agreed beforehand.
Professional standards
Working to an agreed professional standard.
Joachim works in accordance with the LVV Code of Conduct(opens in a new tab) for LVV-registervertrouwenspersonen®. At the beginning of an organisational arrangement, the applicable confidentiality, complaints and professional procedures are made available to the people covered by the service.
Any organisational reporting is limited to agreed, anonymised and aggregated patterns that cannot reasonably be traced back to an individual. Removing a name is not sufficient if the circumstances could still identify someone. Individual case information is not shared without the person's explicit consent, subject only to the clearly explained limits of confidentiality.
Considering an external confidential counsellor?
A first conversation can clarify what would fit your organisation, your people and your obligations.